When Shane Ryan Hammond burst into an Ohio home in 2017 to apprehend a
suspected bail jumper, he pointed an assault rifle directly at a man
and his grandmother. He then handcuffed his target and drove him to West
Virginia.

But Hammond wasn’t a police officer or sheriff’s
deputy. He wasn’t even a licensed bail bondsman. Hammond was simply an
admirer of law enforcement who pretended to be in their ranks—and his
actions made him a danger to the public.

As a result of an
investigation by the FBI, Columbus Police Department, and the Franklin
County Sheriff’s Department, Hammond is now serving time in prison.

For more than a year, Hammond, now 27, ran a company he called the
Midwest Fugitive Task Force. He dressed in tactical gear and carried
guns, a Taser, a badge, and a patch identifying him as an agent. At
least eight times, he kidnapped people who had skipped bail and received
payment from an actual bail bondsman for returning them. Hammond also
falsely claimed on several occasions that he was a federal agent.

“He
knew how to talk like a cop. He knew the lingo, and people believed
him,” said Officer Roger Dickinson of the Columbus Police Department,
who serves on the FBI Cincinnati Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task
Force (JTTF).

Bail bondsman licensing varies by state, and Hammond
did not have a proper license to operate in Ohio. Hammond was an
authorized employee of a private security company, but that license did
not allow him to run his own operation.

Hammond wanted to imitate
police officers but his behavior differed from that of legitimate law
enforcement personnel. He carried an assault rifle, violated
individuals’ rights, and demeaned those he interacted with,
investigators said. Hammond even once pointed an assault rifle at a
young child while trying to capture a fugitive.

“He knew how to talk like a cop. He knew the lingo, and people believed him.”

Roger Dickinson, task force officer, FBI Cincinnati JTTF

Hammond came to the attention of the JTTF after he falsely claimed to
be a federal agent investigating terrorism. And although Hammond was a
fake officer, he had a real body camera—and he had recorded hours of
footage of himself kidnapping his victims.

“He wore a body
recorder and captured all of these incidents. We had a lot of disturbing
footage of him,” said Supervisory Special Agent Greg Naples of the FBI
Cincinnati JTTF.

Hammond pleaded guilty last year to kidnapping,
impersonating an agent of the United States, interstate transportation
of a stolen vehicle, and wire fraud charges. He was sentenced in May to
15 years in prison.

“Even though Hammond did not physically injure
anyone, he did things that were unconstitutional and immoral,” said a
Franklin County Sheriff’s Department investigator assigned to case.
“Some of the people he encountered were traumatized. Someone absolutely
could’ve been hurt.”